Around 80% population would agree that the most significant invention of the 20th Century was the computer and the internet. Currently every third man in the whole world and eight out of ten men in the US access the internet. With such high level of accessibility of the internet, it becomes imperative that marketing methods get modified in accordance with the flow of the world and internet be used more effectively to promote brands and products.

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Hence internet marketing is emerging as the most commonly used method of marketing wherein the World Wide Web is being smartly used by companies to promote their products by means of social media marketing, viral marketing, email marketing or web marketing. The most surprising fact about internet marketing is that the response to these marketing initiatives is coming equally from all age brackets of the society, starting from teenagers, Gen X’ers, to baby boomers and nowadays even the senior citizens.

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Internet marketing has found its place in the list of top companies where they are depending more on internet than any other media for marketing of their product. Here are some major techniques and strategies that get applied by top companies to get better yield from the marketing campaigns held online.

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Email marketing is being done properly and with a clear purpose. Sellers promote their brand by means of sending one to one emails to prospect customers as well as current customers. Mass mails are being avoided as that might make the email land in the spam folder.

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Decide on a definite web promotion plan and design the website accordingly. Some investment would be required here to setup the website that will speak about your product and brand.

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Some investment is also required behind the search engine optimization process so that your product and your website get a good ranking in the major search engines. Once the customers will get to know about your product they will try to find out more information about the same though various search engines and it is important that the top search results contain your product else the same will lose importance in the customer’s eyes.

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Get some affiliate marketing done for your product. There are many people on the internet who do affiliate marketing and will ensure that the popularity of the product goes to a limit which would not have been possible by other means of marketing.

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Once the product is being marketed properly by means of various internet marketing modes like email marketing or social media marketing it is important that a blog gets maintained where regular updates regarding the product could be communicated to the customers. Also, such blogs will help in interaction with the visitors and attract them more towards the product.

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With the deployment of the above mentioned strategies good results from internet marketing have been registered so far. These strategies can be applied by beginners as well as long time players in the field of marketing.

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Like every other thing internet marketing also has a set of benefits and drawbacks which have been observed. The list of benefits is longer than the drawbacks hence this method is rapidly making its place in the various marketing strategic planning of top companies.

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== The Benefits Of Internet Marketing ==

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The major benefit of the internet marketing is that the business options are open round the clock, round the year. There is no shop opening and closing time so the buyers have the luxury to get to the website and place orders as per their convenience at any time of the day or even during late hours of the night.

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Also, with internet marketing you wipe out the terms distance and boundaries from the dictionary as the buyer may be located in any other geographical location and that would not stop him from placing the order when he is doing so over the internet. Hence with internet marketing the target customer population is not limited to the area where the store is located. One factor that needs to kept in mind while doing international transaction is that the product which is being sold or being marketed is suitable for the local market. This can be ensured by setting up localized services for the product.

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With traditional marketing methods, you would end up paying a lot of money on the recurring cost of rent and maintenance of the retail outlets, on the advertisement cost in print and TV media. The benefit of internet marketing can be reaped in maximum here as all these expenses can be mitigated while you opt for internet marketing. The only expenses that you would need o bear is the web development charges and the charges incurred to get the top ranks in the various search engines by means of search engine optimizations.

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Apart from these the other benefits of internet marketing would be that the customer may place customized offers on the website and the product will get delivered accordingly. Also, with the use of viral marketing which is a form of social media marketing, you may use the word of mouth advertisement of your product wherein the users of these social media websites will spread the good words about the product through their messages and notifications.

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== Drawbacks Of Internet Marketing ==

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There are certain drawbacks of the internet marketing methods which include complains like not getting the product that was promised or not being able to check the quality of the product before purchasing. While the companies are trying to mitigate these drawbacks by offering return policies to customers, yet these are some negatives that would remain to be associated with internet marketing.

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The world is changing every day hence it is of utmost importance that marketing techniques also get adapted with the changing world, or else the companies would get to a situation where there are very limited customers left to purchase their products. Internet marketing is the future; it is the art that will make marketing experience more convenient and smooth for the end users.